Maizurah Omar

Ph.D.

Maizurah Omar, Ph.D, served as the Principal Investigator of the ITC Malaysia Survey from 2003 to 2018. During this period, Maizurah focused on research, publications, and advocacy to strengthen tobacco control policies in Malaysia as well as collaborating with other ITC countries, especially with the research team from ITC Thailand Survey.

In addition to her faculty position at the National Poison Centre, Universiti Sains Malaysia, she was the Coordinator for the Clearinghouse for Tobacco Control and a member of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Technical Working Group (FCTC TWG) of the Malaysian Ministry of Health.

She was active in tobacco control policy research including advocacy and capacity building projects. Through these research activities she has helped advance tobacco control policies in Malaysia, including the implementation of graphic health warnings for Malaysian cigarette packs, raising of tobacco tax, illicit trade, and extension of public smoke-free areas. Her major publications focused on research and production of warning labels, visual images, plain packaging, e-cigarettes, and illicit trade. In addition, she was also active in education and prevention activities and developed ICT and Multimedia Educational Packages and e-learning Packages for the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), the International Use and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), and the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health Malaysia. She was also involved in advocacy and capacity building, supporting initiatives including but not limited to tobacco-free campus and city projects, as well as offering computerized quitline services.